the sea proof finance minister is in russia are looking for plan b. . rejected any e.u. bailout deal which included a raid on bank savings. president obama is and is well though his for as a foreign visitor to read election claims his ship is a papering over the cracks in the relationship rather than seeking real progress on key issues like peace in the middle east and a potential strike on iran. the number of hunger striking prisoners that one tunnel will be nearly doubles according to campbell visuals for the inmates now in hospital. you're watching r t a line from moscow with me to say it's good to have you with us

cyprus is looking for plan b. to avoid that bankruptcy after its parliament gave the resoundingly no vote to the e.u. i.m.f. bailout package the country's finance minister is now in moscow with the reports russia could be ready to lend a helping hand to the ailing euro zone member parties you've got these canards reports. sampras is in a very difficult position right now since it's just rejected the bailout plan by brussels and the troika off key investors to tax private bank accounts in cyprus and frankly there are that many places to turn to right now for assistance from the cypriot finance minister is in moscow he's met with his russian counterpart and he said that he's satisfied with the negotiations but at the same time added that no official offer has been made so far although the minister is now planning to meet with russia's first deputy prime minister and said that he's not leaving moscow until an agreement is reached there is speculation that cyprus is going to ask russia for a loan but we do know that the country already holds a moscow two and

a half a billion euros this is for another loan which was given to the country back in two thousand and eleven back then it exceeded ten percent of its g.d.p. and helped its economy stay afloat but the big question now is is cyprus going for broke is it going to ask a russia for a complete bailout package but the big picture is angle and merkel is completely furious with cyprus even talking to moscow about this even though it's widely acknowledged that up to thirty percent of the pilots on the site had bank accounts belong to russian businesses. so the clock is ticking for cyprus wish could run out of money within weeks thanks us still close across the country amid widespread public anxiety of a savings archies tessa cilia reports from. as far as what goes on the street at the moment it's rather calm the initial patric really happened over the weekend when that announcement was made from brussels that they will be toxic people were

lining up. in front of a.t.m.'s trying to get their money out and yesterday i was talking to some locals who were trying to get some money out of the a.t.m. some had run out of cash and this morning when i actually tried to buy a bottle of water they had given me a handful of change and apologizing that they have run out of five euros or ten euro notes because the banks were closed the u.k. government as we know had already set about one million euros in cash to their troops who were here in cyprus just to keep the cash go away now on the number of bigger level of economic a level if the banks do remain closed this will pose a problem as the economy does hit a substantially on the banking sector and there's already been doubt on whether the banks to open at all but we also heard from reaction from the e.u. i did find this minister said well the bloc deeply regretted the both of the bailout offer still sounds provided that the initial requirement is still met all this leave that is law that has not passed the parliament and they're really not happy about that will the impact of what is happening in cyprus certainly sending

ripples across europe first of all to the citizens who are now quite afraid of their say because of the fact that the seeds of doubt and so the credibility has been damaged that the damage has been done even if the foetid not go through so people are saying if it can happen to cyprus that that red line to be crossed dipping into people's savings it could happen to other euro zone countries that might be leading bailouts in the future. the controversial plans are may have been rejected by cyprus but the e.u. has crossed the red line in proposing the idea that's the view of nigel for asure you came dependence upon you have things brussels that send a strong signal to the people of europe even in my diaries predictions in this parliament over the years about the way the bosses were behaving never did i think that they would in a completely unprecedented manner resort to stealing money from people's bank accounts and the message that sends to people who've got savings in banks in those

countries certainly if i was them is get your money out while you can do not invest anywhere in the euro zone you've got to be mad to do so because it's now run by people who don't respect democracy who don't respect the rule of law who don't respect the basic principles upon which western civilization is supposed to be based by our propping up a euro zone which in the end is going to collapse in disastrous failure are they are prepared to do anything to do so i think that this decision this german dominated and led decision is the worst decision we've seen so far in this whole eurozone crisis. could russian rubles be one of the reasons the e.u. wasn't willing to fully bail out cyprus that's debated in cross talk with peter lavelle later this hour. germans are only agreed to this bailout if the russians depositors which is a lot is about thirty billion dollars worth of russian money in those banks they don't get away scot free but in these pools of deposits overwhelmingly the people

who are getting by this time zone depositors are cypriots. and the notion that. russian oligarchs and so on are being brought by this is really put about in germany in order to justify the very harsh treatment of cypriot savers. we've been seeing. barack obama is heading to key ally israel for the first time as u.s. president obama's a previous term in office or frosty relations with israel's recently related prime minister benjamin netanyahu however expectations of a breakthrough on the most pressing issues appear low even among u.s. officials that many see them much and trumpeted visit as a p.r.

stunt artie's policy larry ports. when former american president george bush visited israel his trip was dubbed clear skies pope benedict the sixteenth was cloaked white road now it's a bomb has turned. we've called the visit then shakable alliance it is a sign of the extraordinary relations between israel and the united states. so extraordinary that the prime minister's office invited the public to choose one of these designs as the trips official emblem but relations between the two leaders are strained and many believe the positive p.r. is nothing more than cave a spin there are policy differences. on the palestinian issue on the boards the rise of islamist forces in. egypt or do you see from. what you've seen from washington. at the distance from the palestinian street for that matter. a bomber came just to beautify the ugly face

that bush left the american government works the same whether the president is a bomber or bush the only difference is that one president smiles while the other does not this is likely to be the scene for the next three days while a bomb is in town anger frustration and raised in the streets of palestine also full of posters protesting the president's visit to many of them his face has been blacked out. critics warn that if obama doesn't confront the tuna who on settlements and sixty seven borders the visit could disintegrate into another diplomatic failure and some say we knew all of violence in the middle east we don't see ourselves leaving our communities we have returned to places where we have the jewish people have always wished to live there and we live that with encouragement of the support of the israeli government when it comes to read about men netanyahu are at loggerheads a bomber is against an israeli military strike despite relations between the u.s.

and iran being themselves quite strained franking iran. in spite of american explicit objections would certainly. hamper israel's relations with the united states might. even break them all together so for all its hype a bomb his visit for me is less of a compliment and more of an attempt by washington to reaffirm its military alliance in pursuit of its economic interests the interests of the united state its not its in the resources of the middle east and not in its people and to ever think that it is devoted to states have changed that is it will prove differently proof that comes at a price literally the three day trip cost millions of dollars high price for a visit with so little promise for. television. the number of prisoners staging a hunger strike a gun tunnel bear has already doubled according to u.s.

military officials they also admitted these two inmates were treated in hospital for dehydration but maintained there is no message strike over mistreatment as detainees a lawyer has claimed meanwhile the u.n. human rights body has finally responded to mounting media coverage of the guantanamo crisis or in a partner has the details. received a long statement from the office of the un's high commissioner for human rights navi pillay now directly related to the guantanamo hunger strike that statement said that quote while aware of some of the allegations of mistreatment of inmates said to have provoked the hunger strike which includes undue interference with inmates personal effects we are still trying to confirm the details unquote of the statement went on to say that the human rights commissioner has repeatedly regretted that the u.s. government has not closed get mo and has she's also expressed concern over the obstacles the national defense authorization act has created for losing the island prison and for trying prisoners that are there even the united nations has not been

able to have enough access at guantanamo to see what is taking place with this hunger strike that prisoners at guantanamo bay one on hunger strike on february sixth in protest of the alleged confiscation of their personal items and religious handling of their qur'an so at that time the u.s. military was saying that only a handful of prisoners were on hunger strike but we do know that medical experts have told us and so have attorneys that once this hunger strike enters its forty fifty day hunger strike participants risk losing their eyesight and losing their hearing there's been reports according to attorneys of hunger strike participants losing up to thirty pounds if not more coughing up blood losing consciousness being hospitalized so the attorneys for these state detainees are sounding the alarm as they've even the center for constitutional rights even sent

a letter to u.s. defense secretary chuck hagel say help us end this hunger strike but the u.s. taining it's not a big deal. my reporting from new york also spoke on the phone to captain jason write a member of the defense team for some of the detainees in guantanamo here's what he told us about the conditions the prisoners find themselves in when i first walked in grenada rent a week ago i met with my client my half inclined i was shocked to see the change in the parents more weight and concern in the description of. people who are out about the conditions of confinement the government. can only talk about i can tell you that american forward with other defense attorney. told me. stories about how what happened. in the social.

world come after the break. technology. developments. you know how sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew you don't know about i'm sorry welcome to the big show.

you. thanks for staying with us you're watching r t syria's government and rebels like using each other of using chemical weapons in an attack that killed twenty five people in wood and dozens more near the northern city of aleppo both sides claim a rocket was fired loaded with chemical agents right live to damascus now and now with local journalist. can you give us any more details about the deadly attacks. that occurred and maybe

a cold which is in the north of the pool in an area that was under the control of the government it contained one of the. military station it's called the police center the police training center and this police training center has been under the attack from the opposition for the last three weeks or more and they were very to control it hard because of the difficulty of the hard fighting from the government they could not control it and now after that government claims that opposition who fired a mess solid. in the morning with chemical goddesses and this chemical guys is played into the killing of three people on the one of the seventy people including some of the doctors we're trying to. to heal these people. close by hospitals we have to talk about this important thing when it comes to this attack. because the biggest fear was from the beginning of the crisis the city in

crisis was that position might take control over some of the chemical weapons this chemical can make and that fall under the control of some extremist groups or jihadist groups who are fighting i don't with a city and oppositions and we have seen something by two months ago there was a video that led to many eco's. syria and in the neighboring countries of syrian syrian opposition to group claiming some experiments on. some chemical guys they are making over any most of the rabbits and they call themselves a very extremist name it's called the. killing wins and which is the difference is jihadi and said if it's if it's if it's differences and this. is again the question of how difficult and how dangerous it is for this extremist group who had the same mentality of a certain as you had this group to take control over this chemical weapons. abdul

i'm curious as a journalist or working then covering this story what has been the international reaction to this. when it comes to international international reaction we have heard many countries there commenting on this because it's very very dangerous to be said that the americans did not claim that. this is very very dangerous as citizens and they said that previously said that if that he has used this chemical weapon this is that it blinds for for another few years and this is not on the the british to americans down this is the american and the british said just the same time and also we have heard the. lead of the american forces in europe claiming saying. that there are certainly many countries are working on potential spun in order to make some inside syria in case of which was approved one of the percent that the chemical weapon was used. was in me thank you very much

there live or former syria speaking to us. a group linked to to al qaeda says they are behind the so-called bloody choosey attacks in baghdad when sixty five people died in a series of blasts across the city the day which mall to the tenth anniversary of the u.s. invasion became the deadliest in iraq so far this year a decade after western coalition stepped in to bring freedom and democracy stability is still eluding the nation as you see catherine off explains from iraq. almost everyone that we've met here in iraq is deeply scarred and traumatized by war in one way or another whether was losses under the saddam era or the massive violence and bloodshed that's been unleashed by the u.s. war and subsequent occupation not to mention the sectarian and ethnic lines that that war has opened blood shed is unfortunately the new norm for most of the parts of iraq here where we're standing right now is actually the semi autonomous region

of iraqi kurdistan is probably the only area in the wrong that has seen life improved since the war in large part due to profits from the oil that's been found in this region but less than an hour away in the city of kirkuk where we went a completely different picture checkpoint after checkpoint blast wall surrounding the city it was quite dangerous for us to move around without a military escort and most of the residents complained of potentials of security attacks almost at any moment so this is something that's really been reflected across the country and it's quite symbolic of course that on the anniversary of the ten year invasion iraq close that painful chapter much the same way that it began with bombs across baghdad but as for whether the people feel better off or not it really depends on fortunately on their experience their. ethnic affiliations their religion and what they've suffered during the past ten years. the situation in the country is better than we do have a problem that is violence there are lots of explosions everything is.

the way things are today. groups are fracturing this democracy. we would feel free to go out and return safely. but there's no guarantee that i'll come home so as you heard there the one thing that does seem to unite iraqis today is fear fear of when the next explosion or attack. the u.s. led military campaign in iraq was supposed to overthrow the regime of saddam hussein and protect the world from his alleged weapons of mass destruction so dumb was toppled well though w m d's were never found our goal now is that it takes a look at whether the means are justified the end. what for the thinking then and what do they think now those are the questions that many people want to ask those in power who made the decision to invade iraq ten years ago r.t.

did just that pose in several uncomfortable questions to those who voted to invade the country a decade ago warning their replies may leave you surprised no i don't regret voting in that way because i think the people of iraq have been freed of course you'll regret any number of people who died but the big question is what were the was the intent of saddam hussein against his own people we've already seen that we had a very repressive regime but what's come in place of saddam's baath history team could hardly be called a better safer life if they could have insurgency terror attacks roadside bombs and seemingly endless six tarion violence the effect of the invasion on the iraqi population has been devastating let's look at these numbers over here we're looking at almost five thousand coalition deaths about hundred thirty four thousand of iraq he does but of course those numbers are varying greatly depending on the source and finally you're looking at more than two million displaced people of course not to

mention the latest report by the watson institute for international studies at brown university which reckons the war has to date cost the u.s. more than two trillion dollars some american military officials remain undaunted by the numbers and believe what they did ten years ago actually was a good thing i think it was very necessary for us to do something to help the middle east a degree of freedom but it hadn't had before now a lot of people are going to argue that the iraq invasion did not provide the types of freedom that we had originally envisioned but what what the they're dealing with a regime that didn't allow any freedoms and now depending on where you are in iraq there is at least some. once of some freedom unfortunately no map of those places has been provided the latest gallup poll conducted on the eve of the tenth

anniversary showed fifty three percent of americans consider the invasion of iraq a mistake the view is shared by at least one man who was among those who ten years ago believed a military operation against saddam hussein was necessary artie's bureau longdon met with lord prescott who in two thousand and three was tony blair's deputy prime minister it all used to be denied that it was regime change book about not only wants revenge but it's now what motivates the russian i think in regard to iraq you see these people not talking about intervening but they don't want boots on the ground with that they just want. to kill more civilians than the alleged terrorists you know i want the lesson to be learned and we shouldn't repeat it again these countries must develop in all ways as for those iraqis who fought in the war well for them the war is anything but over as they now have to rebuild a country led to the brink of collapse by foreign invaders in the name of all timid

good while those who instigated the carnage seem to show no regrets whatsoever and later today r t takes it to the streets of iraq as setting on a three week a road trip exploring the country behind the headlines don't miss our special report. a clear image of iraq after a. twenty day taxi trip through the country. to. hear from to see. the huge block of iraqi tragedy. after the war waiting for peace. i got a taxi on our t.v. . and i look at some other news making headlines around the globe u.s. lawmakers have decided to drop the ban on assault weapons from proposed gun control legislation most of the shills to say the measure like to support but it's believed

a ban could later be voted on as a separate bill the polls show most americans back an assault weapon ban influential pro-gun lobby groups such as the national rifle association of present lawmakers to oppose such a move. as north african branches says they've killed a french hostage in mali reports claim phillipe of a dawn was they killed in response to france's intervention in the country the french of foreign ministry says it's trying to verify the report verdun and another frenchman was seized in mali in november of twenty eleven. after the break up the financial turmoil in cyprus is up for discussion on peta levels to stay with us with that.

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hello and welcome to cross talk where all things considered i'm peter lavelle to cyprus bailing is this government theft in broad daylight is applying a levy on depositors the answer to this small islands financial woes or is it a means to tax russians using cyprus as a legal tax haven and most importantly can europeans trust their banks anymore.

to cross out the cyprus financial crisis i'm joined by michael burke in london he is an economic consultant and a former senior international economist with citi bank and in washington we cross the shares and raymond she is a professor of international finance and director of the european union research center at george washington university all right cross talk rules in fact that means you can jump in anytime you want to go to washington first appears and you said this is moral hazard this is what's going on in cyprus right now can you explain that please. sure sure the you know this is unprecedented what is happening right now in a financial crisis the one the one entity you protect are always a small savers and they're getting hit this time so most of the small savers will be hit by a six point seven five percent tax and exchange they'll be given shares of that very bank and if that's not more has it i don't know what is so you have to give money to a bank to.